Thursday, 21 June 2012

Thursday Tour - Heysham

Heysham is a village on the southern side of Morecambe Bay.
We’ll ignore the two nuclear power stations nearby, and also the port from
which ferries leave for the Isle of Man and Ireland.

Instead, we’ll concentrate on the village itselfwhose origins lie somewhere in Neolithic
times, as stone axes and hammer heads have been found in the area. Some of
these artefacts suggest that this area might have been an ancient burial ground
or ‘barrow’. The cliff top area is still known as the ‘Barrows’.

Tradition says that St. Patrick visited Heysham about
445A.D. and built a small chapel on the edge of the cliff. Later, around the
8th or 9th century, this was replaced by another chapel, the remains of which
can still be seen. It was known as St Patrick’s Chapel, and six rock-cut tombs
have been found nearby. These graves appear on the cover of the CD ‘The Best of
Black Sabbath.’

The present church, St Peter’s, was built in Saxon times,
and fragments of this church can still be seen in the present church was built
about 1340-50, with later extensions in the 15th and 19th centuries. The
grounds of this church contain several Saxon and Viking remains, including a
Hog Back stone, which was probably a Viking gravestone. It is carved with
several grotesque animal figures.

The village itself has attractive old cottages , some dating
to the 17th century, and Victorian houses. When I used to visit Heysham as a
child, it was famous for its ‘Nettle Beer’, a non-alcoholic ‘beer’ brewed
originally by Granny Hutchinson in a small cottage on the main street. I
remember tasting it once – but not liking it very much!